The aim of this modification is to tweak some of the weapons' characteristics so they behave in a more realistic manner in-game. It is not an attempt to make every weapon as realistic as possible no matter what, because Grand Theft Auto IV isn't capable of being (nor is it meant to be) a completely realistic simulation of ballistics; this is merely an effort to change the things that don't make much sense so they make more sense, while hopefully maintaining game balance, with the end goal being to make the weapons more satisfying to use without getting ridiculous. Important changes include extended effective range for most weapons and tweaked accuracy, damage and magazine capacity for some others.

This mod is designed for a keyboard and mouse control setup. Using it with a console controller setup may result in unexpected results due to the different way aiming and targeting is handled.

* Both the Pistol (Glock 17) and the Combat Pistol (Desert Eagle) have a somewhat longer effective range, while the balance between the two is maintained (the Desert Eagle still has a slightly longer range than the Glock) and their maximum ammo capacities are reduced to 510 and 270, respectively, which equates to 30 magazines&apos; worth, still a hell of a lot for weapons no one uses as a primary weapon in a shootout if they can help it. The Combat Pistol&apos;s damage is increased slightly.

* The Pump Action Shotgun&apos;s magazine capacity has been halved to 4 rounds for realism purposes, making reloads more frequent, but the damage is increased somewhat to help offset this. Range and accuracy are increased slightly. You can hit targets at longer ranges than before, but more often than not it&apos;ll do only a little damage because most of the pellets miss due to spread.

* The Combat Shotgun now has a moderately longer effective range, significantly increased damage and slightly improved accuracy, while its magazine capacity has been reduced from 10 to 8. The total ammo capacity for both shotguns has been increased from 80 to 100.

* The Micro SMG&apos;s effective range is increased somewhat, but its accuracy is also reduced somewhat.

* The SMG&apos;s effective range is increased somewhat.

* The Assault Rifle (AK-47) now has a significantly extended effective range and slightly increased damage, but reduced accuracy.

* The Carbine Rifle (M4) also has a significantly extended effective range (slightly longer than that of the AK-47), and slightly increased accuracy, but slightly reduced damage.

* The Sniper Rifle&apos;s magazine capacity has been increased from 5 to 10 to match its model, which features an extended 10-round magazine. Its total ammo capacity has been increased from 50 to 70, ditto with the Combat Sniper Rifle.

--- Installation ---
First, you must modify your copy of the game so it will accept modified files. For details on how to do this, see this topic on GTAForums.com: http://www.gtaforums.com/index.php?showtopic=397149

Next, extract the WeaponInfo.xml file to the following directory:

Grand Theft Auto IVcommondata

Make sure you back up the existing file just in case you want to revert to it!

--- Background rationale ---
I&apos;ve tweaked most of the weapons, but the biggest changes are to the shotguns and the assault rifles:

- Shotguns -
In the unmodded game, the shotguns strike me as pissy and weak to the point that they&apos;re barely worth using in any situation except those involving very close quarters combat (such as room to room fighting). Using the combat shotgun, it would often take several shots to down a single foe even at 10 meters&apos; distance. True, in reality too most shotguns are only suitable for use at close ranges, but what most gamers consider to be close range and what is otherwise considered to be close range are often two different things. Typical game shotguns are so inaccurate that any enemy more than 20 meters away is completely safe, as games tend to exaggerate shotgun spread. Whatever it&apos;s fired from, buckshot is buckshot, and while it does disperse fairly quickly as it travels, it doesn&apos;t simply vanish into mid-air beyond such a short distance the way it does in many games, especially not when fired from a long barrelled combat shotgun. We&apos;re not dealing with sawn-offs here. In reality combat shotguns like the Benelli M4 Super 90 or GTA IV&apos;s own Remington 11-87 have effective ranges somewhere in the neighbourhood of 40-50m, which is, safe to say, at least twice that of the combat shotgun in GTA IV.

Anyway, all told, I&apos;ve only extended shotgun range a little (Because, as far as I know, their dispersion is mostly defined in the actual ammo type, which I don&apos;t know how to edit), but within their effective range they are considerably more deadly and satisfying to use, especially the combat shotgun which is now as fearsome a weapon as it should be, shredding anything in its path with a torrent of lead. Both shotguns are very powerful shot for shot, but have limited capacity so reloading is a constant issue. Using the combat shotgun, you may do a lot of damage, but you&apos;ll burn through your ammo supply very quickly. The shotguns are now considerably more powerful to the point that they&apos;re worth using in a street gunfight with the cops, not just in really close quarters. Just the way it should be.

- Assault rifles -
My main bone to pick with the assault rifles in GTA IV is range. All of the weapons in the game have a somewhat short effective range in comparison to their real life counterparts, but it&apos;s most noticable with the rifles because they&apos;re the mainstays of ranged combat. Their effective ranges drop off too soon and far too suddenly. All too often I&apos;ve been able to see a target very clearly but been unable to hit it until it comes *just a little closer at which point my bullets start colliding with the target. In the real world, bullets gradually lose their velocity and yield to gravity over long distances, they don&apos;t simply vanish into thin-air once they&apos;ve travelled a certain distance.

Anyway, short of a major modification there&apos;s no way to change the way the engine handles ballistics, so the line between total effect and zero effect is just as abrupt, but now both assault rifles have a substantially longer effective range. They have nowhere near the range or precision of the sniper rifles, but they now serve their roles as mid-range weapons much more admirably than before.

--- Future changes I&apos;d like to make, but don&apos;t know how ---

* Increase the rate of fire of both the AK and the M4. Changing the &apos;time between shots&apos; value seems to only have effect on the weapon&apos;s rate of fire in AI hands, not yours. I read somewhere that the rate of fire is also determined by the player firing animation, that may be the reason for the discrepancy.

* Change the Combat Shotgun&apos;s animation so it can be fired in the normal semi-automatic mode from cover, there&apos;s no reason why not.

* Fix the SMG so the reload sound is played when you reload in cover or while crouching, and correct the issue with the rate of fire being inexplicably lower when the weapon is blindfired.

A good list of the GTA IV weapons&apos; real life counterparts.
http://www.imfdb.org/index.php?title=Grand_Theft_Auto_IV

--- Disclaimer ---
You use this third-party modification at your own risk, I, the author, take no responsibility for any problems you may encounter while installing or using this modification. Do not contact Rockstar Games or Take Two Interactive if you encounter any issues.

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